Buizel

Loving this atm. Only thing that maybe stops it being the “best” way to play these games is lack of ability to trade with RSE/Colo/XD…hopefully this is to come.

But otherwise looks and plays great. And being able to seamlessly swap between handheld and TV is a dream.

Re: the price. People will be getting 10s if not 100s of hours out of these games.

I’ve personally been playing these games since they came out and still revisit them every 1-2 years.

Sure, you could argue that Nintendo is pocketing a lot of money by doing barely anything to some old games…but I wouldn’t say these games are low value.

Glad I held off on replaying this on GBA after all. I’d much rather replay on Switch 2.

I didn’t even realise it was out? I feel like it’s has next to no coverage since the Direct, including here.

Ivysaur. It was my first experience of evolution, and it frankly looks awesome in Red/Blue and its early promo art.

I thought nobody bought third party games on Switch (2)?

Nice to see more positivity here as a lot seem disappointed elsewhere. As usual we have people considering it bad purely because very specific games didn’t appear…

I would give it a 8/10. Great pacing, with game after game. My main criticisms are that we knew about some games already (which tbf is normal for a direct), and that there was no single big surprise announcement.

But overall the direct has painted a healthy picture of the switch 2 library moving forward, and that’s exactly what it needed to do. Key publishers like Square Enix, Capcom, Namco, Bethesda are clearly on board and giving us the latest games. There’s simply too many games for me at this point.

I’m particularly looking forward to Pragmata, Digimon, FF7 Rebirth and Kyoto Xanadu.

As a Sonic fan of almost 30 years...SEGA is not in the position to sell Sonic games for full price. Sonic games, whatever the quality, are a big risk and Sonic fans are used to getting burned. Not to mention we're used to seeing the games on sale for 50%+ off within a year or so...

Also...caveat that I've not played the full game, but the demo was just really...uninteresting. It really felt like generic kart racer with Sonic characters. I'd rather just play Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed for the thousandth time.

@Wewewi basically what I came to say. Both terrible.

NA at least looks like it could be an interesting game though, so I went with that.

Honestly I don't think any of these fit.

Although...

I hope it continues to sell well. We need more Musou crossovers!

Good to see the overwhelmingly positive response here. I’ve kinda felt like FF7 Remake and its sequel are somewhat underrated. They’re some of the best JRPGs of the past decade IMO but don’t really get talked about as such. And personally I find Rebirth to be the best in the series (of those I’ve played).

And this seems to be a solid port. Looking forward to sinking my teeth into this for the next month or so.

@LinktotheFuture It includes the original FF7

Impressed at how it looks, but as someone who owns all three…I can also switch between them in seconds, so don’t see much practical point to this. Still a neat exercise though.

Now give me all three systems in the Switch 2’s form factor and we’ll be talking.

If you’re on the fence, do give this a go.

This and Rebirth are without question my favourite games in the series, and they’re some of the best JRPGs of the past decade. The battle system is among the best in any JRPG. I’m thrilled to see this come to Switch 2.

I went with US.

Really surprised people like the European cover…chainsaw man alone in dense woods really doesn’t seem representative of the game at all IMO.

Also not a fan of how 4 is on the left of all these logos.

I kinda prefer it for some games. It feels like it gives me more precision for vertical and horizontal inputs, especially on games like Tetris where a minor slip up could cost you the game.

That said, I don’t use them often in handheld mode as I find the placement rather awkward.

I agree that some of the placements here seem a bit strange.

It’s almost as if comparing games from different genres and different initial release years is a futile effort

Still, I think the takeaway here is that it’s been a great year to own a Switch or Switch 2. I’ve only scratched the surface of this list and had a great year gaming on these consoles.

As someone who was big into Neopets back in the day, this is very nostalgic.

Not sure it will hit the same though when you're not earning NP.

@ThatOneLevel To your first point...I'm not sure what you're saying here? I'm not talking about remakes generations later...I'm talking about them selling basically the exact same game 1-2 years later (Yellow, Crystal, etc.)

As for the second point...why is this worse? Surely knowing what's on the horizon is better than buying into a game and then having the rug pulled under you when they later announce you've bought an "incomplete" version.

For the final point - do you have any evidence of this? In fact there have been countless instances of content being "cut" from Pokemon games in previous generations (for better or worse).

@ThatOneLevel Well before DLC we had them having us rebuy games after 1-2 years to get new content. Not sure that's the model we want to aspire to. I also think base Z-A has plenty of content. Maybe not the most of any game ever...but it didn't feel incomplete to me.

That said, I do agree with the review on this DLC. As someone who really enjoyed the base game, I do get some enjoyment of having more content...but it's exactly that, just more content. The gameplay loop of going into the alternate dimension was interesting at first, but got repetitive quite quickly.

@Dom_31 I’m tempted to agree. Defo the most fun I’ve had with a Pokemon game in the past decade at least…and I’ve been enjoying the recent Pokemon games despite their flaws.

And I’m seeing a lot of similar sentiment from people who have played the game. There are genuine things to be critical about, but most of the online criticism is uninformed and seems to be from people who haven’t even played the game.

I get the idea, but this feels beyond nitpicky at this point.

Sure, it's not ideal, but there are plenty of highly-rated, modern games where the NPCs are also fairly static. No-one is complaining about those.

I'm glad they focused more on the Pokemon's movements and integrating them into the city. Pretty cool just to be wandering about the city and stumbling upon wild pidgey, fletchling, etc.

I've found myself a little sensitive to this in other recent games (Metaphor: Refantazio and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 come to mind, also the 60 fps update to Pokemon Scarlet/Violet) and tbh it's largely something that bothers me about first-person games. But not once did it cross my mind with DK. Camera was a bit of a bother at first though.

5% is quite a shocking proportion to find the game unplayable due to motion sickness though. I hope this isn't representative.

@Solid_Python Just gave it a quick try. This game is definitely not running at 60 fps (at least in handheld mode)...

Not done a side-by-side comparison, but I've had no issue with download speeds. If anything, feels faster than I would've expected.

Part of me agrees with him, and he may in part be responding to the criticism Sonic Adventure DX has been receiving the past couple of decades. Sonic Adventure has not aged particularly well - a straight up rerelease / remaster would have quite a niche audience, and even then many will complain if it isn't "perfect" / includes issues present in the DX releases.

I'm tempted to agree with @Maxz that SEGA should just do a quick-and-dirty budget release (perhaps NSO) and leave it at that. But I would argue that they should do the Dreamcast version this time round.

This game is dying for a remake or reimagining. But that is exactly the extra work that Iizuka is talking about...

Mario Kart World #13?

Yeah this is nonsense.

I honestly didn't find issue with the Echo selection on this game, but I can definitely see how narrowing down the list improves things. A welcome update if it finally puts this discussion to rest.

LA I remember noticing, but like many here I had no problems with EoW whatsoever. Any improvement sounds good to me.

My immediate thought as I saw this was "AI blunder". AI does this crap all the time, it's actually shocking that people are using it to generate content unchecked.

Great, we need more positivity in gaming discourse.

I don't think the Pokemon series is perfect, but similarly I'm kinda fed up with the constant negativity around the series, esp. from those that haven't even played the recent games. It's not that the games need to be shielded from criticism - it's that everyone on the internet is a critic and it can be tiresome hearing the same complaints (which tbh often amount to the same thing) when all you want to do is discuss something you enjoy.

@Ploppy It's not even necessarily a moral issue (I'm not here saying I'm "boycotting" SEGA or anything) - it's more just protecting my best interests as a consumer.

Why would I buy a Switch version of their game when: (i) I'll be fully invested in the Switch 2 by that point, including having probably the better kart racer in Mario Kart World, (ii) if they were to release a Switch 2 version later down the line, chances are I'd have the buy the game all over again.

So best I just avoid this one for now and see what happens with a Switch 2 version.

Yeah as long as SEGA's not offering a Switch 2 upgrade for Sonic X Shadow Generations, I'm unwilling to buy any Switch games they put out at this point.

I'll be playing Mario Kart World for now.

@Orpheus79V Yeah this is my thought...I don't really see how fine control of a cursor is any easier than a quick nudge of the analog stick / d-pad when the menu has a total of a dozen or so items.

Options are great though. I'm just personally not seeing any cases where I'll opt for the Switch 2 mouse controls.

Holding out for a Switch 2 version on this one. But it does look great!

I'm in the process of changing my gaming/purchasing habits, but not directly because of the price increase this gen.

There's two interconnected issues really: time and money. I think money-wise I'm in theory okay, but the rapid availability of cheap games has actually led to frivolous purchases and I've ended up with a dreaded "backlog" of games which, in all honesty, I'll never get around to. Because time.

Really I've learnt I need to be more selective about what I buy and dedicate my time to. It doesn't matter if I own all the games in the world if I never play them, or don't enjoy playing them.

So what am I dedicating my time to? Nintendo rarely let me down, so I'm happy to pay a premium for their games. I would rather one amazing Nintendo game for £75 than 8 £10 games that I'm only moderately interested in.

And it looks like Switch 2 will have some excellent third party support, so I'm wondering if I'll be buying much for my PS5, Xbox or PC at all. I can see myself being ~90% Switch 2 this gen.

Also recognising that great games offer a lifetime of value. I bought Mario Kart 8 twice and it was worth every penny. Hell, I'd say half of my gaming time is replaying old favourites.

The parrying/dodging seems quite divisive. Seems a lot of people absolutely love it, and then others find it to be the worst part of the game. Personally in my couple of hours with the game I wasn't a fan - the timing felt a little off to me, and I found it very difficult to tell from enemies' animations when they were about to hit. Turning the difficulty down to easy helped with the timing windows at least, but I'd like to see an optional glint of light or similar to assist with timing.

That said everything else about the game seems great, including the wider JRPG mechanics. I'm just not enamoured with this one mechanic.

Mario and Zelda are gonna be phenomenal as always.

But my vote goes to Fire Emblem. On the Switch they went from a game I quite enjoyed (Awakening) to one of my favourite games of all time (Three Houses). Hoping they take some of the best things from TH and give us something just as special.

Nintendo: Smithers, how's that launch for the Switch 2 coming along?
Smithers: It's looking to be record-breaking, sir.
Nintendo: Excellent.

So they can offer a save file transfer but not an upgrade?

Bloody hell Sega, that's a no from me. There are too many other Switch 2 games competing for my attention.

@LavaTwilight Came here just to ask that.

I would jump on this in an instant if there was the option to upgrade my Switch 1 version. But paying full price again for a game I picked up barely 6 months ago?

I'll definitely get it eventually though. I've already bought Generations 4 times at this point x_x

Gonna echo the other comments here saying it's is a decision to be on a game-by-game basis.

One series where I think fall damage (well, fall death) makes sense is Tomb Raider - particularly the original series. Partly for realism - it wouldn't make sense for Lara to land 100m off a cliff edge unscathed - but I feel it's pretty baked into the level design here - dictating the way in which you explore and ensuring you can't skip whole sections of the level (and IIRC there are quite a few levels that are centred around verticality).

On the other hand I can't think of a single JRPG that needs it.

I agree and I've been saying this for years.

Sure, analogue might be better for some specific genres and use cases (unfortunately one of Nintendo's classic games, Mario Sunshine, being one of them) - but on the whole I would much rather have digital.

I always found rumble quite jarring in handheld mode on the Switch, and would turn it off only a few months into the Switch's life. It never felt quite right having the whole system shake.

Now I don't even bother with rumble in docked. IDK I'm at the point where I find it more distracting than I find it immersive.

Honestly shocked to see this considered anything less than a 9/10...it was a definite 10/10 for me. Perhaps the most excited I've been for a new console ever.

I was sold the moment they showed off Mario Kart, but they just kept showing more and more. Looking like a strong start to the system.

Wow, I didn't realise Tepig was so disliked.

Meh, we've got two Johto starters which are fine but they've already been in many games prior (GSC, Colosseum, HGSS) and they're monotypes so hard to get excited about.

And I'm just not keen on Tepig and the Unova starters in general.

I'll probably go with Totodile as probably the most preferable of quite a poor selection.

Tbh I wish they'd just given us the Kalos starters. They've barely had any exposure over the years.

Blimey, these cost as much as my first actual guitar back in the day!

I think it looks leagues better than both Legends Arceus and Scarlet / Violet personally.

Had the original mClassic back when I had a bit more disposable income...you could see some slight smoothing if you looked for it, but overall really not worth the money IMO. Once I got rid of it I didn't miss it at all.